Thursday, May 21, 2015

Eric Adolf Helsten immigrated to the United States in 1845. He married Mary Hearty, an Irish immigrant, in 1849. They worked hard and raised a family in Gaylordsville Connecticut. None of his dozen siblings followed him, however, he kept in touch with letters that were shared back home between his mother and siblings. One can only imagine how life in the the USA must have looked from afar to the children of a brother who was not doing very well back in Sweden.

Eric’s niece Johanna Carolina Hellsten decides to write to her uncle, appealing for funds to travel:

Sweden, Mosås and Södrabro24 May 1867Good Day, beloved Uncle!Please be so good as to pardon me that I, as the daughter of Uncle’s Brother Carl, with this our taking the liberty to write these lines, which my father does not have time to do, to divulge my heartfelt wish and to beg for an affectionate and happy answer to the questions below, that for me are extremely important and have bearing on my future.As my dear Father this last year has ceased his work as a brewer and country shop owner and now lives in reduced circumstances and therefore can not afford to keep all four of us children at home, I, as a big, strong, healthy seventeen year old girl, used to brewing, commerce, and rough work and who longs for work in an unknown country where no one finds fault with one’s honest work or despises the virtuous for his poverty.This in addition to the fact that many of my acquaintances have already left for, the employer America, which is why I, too, this fall intend to go there, if some noble person would help me with travel money and good advice at the arrival.Since I have heard that Uncle is rich and happy in the country to which many long to go, I now set my hopes and prayers to Uncle for a kind answer to:Could my dear Uncle please be so kind as to via a postal order to Upsala or a letter give, or, if need be, loan me 200 Kr for travel money?Could my Uncle have use for, or know somebody, me as hired help for anything?Could Uncle extend a helping and protecting hand to me at my arrival and until I have a position? Does Uncle believe that a poor, but swift and untiring, girl can in an honest way earn a meager living through the work of her hands?Please be so kind and make me happy with a longed for answer mailed to my or my father’s address “Sweden Mosås and Södrabo”, which will decide my future fate, because if I receipt travel money and good advice, I plan to leave this fall.My parents are, thank the Lord, in good health despite all their trouble and ask to send their heartfelt greetings in this letter, and also with loving thoughts for my future give me permission to leave.In sincere hopes of Uncle’s loving kindness to me, with much respect, the grateful niece now persists.Johanna Carolina Hellsten

Such a heartfelt appeal. It turns out it came along with a letter from her father, Carl Robert Hellsten (Karl, Calle). He confirms their desperate situation and appeals for both of them to come to the USA.

Örebro and Yellersta 26 May 1867Brother EricIt is many years since we last exchanged letters and many things have happened since then. You know from my last letter that I was thinking of going to America. Now this trip has again come to my mind and even my oldest daughter Johanna wishes to do the same trip. Wherefore she here encloses her letter to you. It is our wish since we hear many tempting letters from America from the ones how have gone there. I do know that everybody is not lucky in America but that hard work and frugality is a way to blessing. But here in Sweden it is a dishonor to work because vanity has taken over. I have now been on my own for eighteen years and during this time made myself know to be frugal, sober and to work hard but this is not enough here. Under this time of 18 years, I have had a general store and during the last 10 years also had a brewery but in spite of all this I had to declare bankruptcy last fall and during this last winter have started to do cork cutting. But loss in circumstances are such her that it is not worth it for the poor to try since [if] he has [declared] bankruptcy [and] if he manages to work, everything up again he loses whatever he inherits or earns without mercy. What then do you have for all the work you do?

In the enticing letters I have read from America they testify to the one who wants to work there does not need to starve. I think I know that all who go to America do not have luck there but it is even so an advantage that you do not have to be ashamed over earning a living in an honest manner. If my information about America is not complete, I ask you to inform me about this but judging from the information I have received, America has big preferences for Swedes. Why should one then bind oneself then to this meager country? Some of my neighbors have now gone to America and others plan to but we don’t have the money to go. Please give us a complete information as possible and if you consider it reasonable for us to try to work in America and then help us both with the money that you have here in Sweden to lend us as travel money to America. Our brother Theodor Emanuel in Upsala has them. We want to work off the money when we come to you. This is the only security I can give you if you would be kind enough to help me us.Write an answer soon and help us if you find you would like to do so. Let me also know if brewing beer is profitable in America and also if cork cutting is profitable. If the trip there happens, I would prefer to work in a brewery or, if that’s not possible, in another kind of factory. I assume that you have some Swedish acquaintances in New York that you could be kind enough to address us to when we arrive.Now dear brother I have written about all that concerns the trip to America. We can have much to write about but it is much better to be able to have a real conversation about it. I will also mention that all of us siblings are alive and as far as I know everyone is in good health.

Lovis is married to a shop owner 20 Km from here whose name is A Nelzon. Mari is close to Stockholm, Lina is in Upland and not far from Upsala Erica and Wennström are well. Tilda is in Stockholm. Ottiljana is in Upsala with our maternal aunt. Now as before, Edla is a manager (director) at the Upsala Hospital. Manne is a watchmaker in Upsala. Frans is a goldsmith in Upsala Oskar is a watchmaker in Stockholm. Knut is a teacher in the big school in Upsala. Everyone has it well except for me and Oskar. Oskar declared bankruptcy the same time I did and now I don’t know how he has it.I hereby end this letter for this time with a kind greeting for yours from us.Your brother, Carl

Carl Hellsten, Johanna's father

Such heartfelt appeals to Eric, uncle and brother in the USA who must have wealth and success from his hard work, doesn’t everyone?

Does Eric send the requested funds as his niece suggested and bring over his niece and brother?
Or, does Eric let then use the funds that their brother Manne is holding for Eric in Uppsala?

Erica does write in pencil on the bottom of Carl’s letter “From L there are two steamers leaving or more every week.” He checks out the costs and availabilities for travel. Travel is much better in 1867 than when he and his wife came in steerage in the equivalent of the “coffin ships” — no steamers for their earlier, much longer, trips. The travel across the Atlantic Ocean has improved in the last couple of decades.

The letter beloe from his brother Manne (Theodor Emanual Hellsten) indicates Eric’s decision and the means of funding the trip, instead of just sending the suggested 200 Kr each to cover the trips.

Upsala 29 October 1867Best Brother Eric!From our heart I wish your daughter and son-in-law happiness and blessings. We’d also like to thank you for the pictures that you sent us. As you promised in a letter to our brother Carl that he or his oldest daughter Hanna could borrow your inheritance from our parents to pay for the trip to America and Hanna decided to go, I have now sent the money to Lovis, she is married and living in the neighborhood of Örebro as you probably know with a request to her that she give the money to Hanna when she is ready to travel. The reason why the sum of money isn’t bigger can be explained by the following statements. While our mother was alive, she lent Calle 700 crowns which including interest 6% counted up to the day of dividing up the estate 3 November 1864 adds up to 77 crowns 37 öre which sum he has not been able to pay back. When you subtract from this sum his inheritance he still owed each and everyone of his siblings 36 crowns, 45 öre. About a year ago he had to go bankrupt without any assets. At the time of the partition of the inheritance, we siblings did decide to send you at some time a gold ring that belonged to mother and she used and also a teaspoon since we wanted you to have a tangible memory from our parents’ home. These things I will send to Lovis at the same time as the money and ask her to give them to Hanna to bring to you after a safe trip. I now have to end these lines with many loving greetings from all of us to you and yours.Your brother ManneMy wife sends many greetings to you and promises to write at another time.

So Eric will fund one of his two family members to travel at this time.
His mother Lovisa Charlotta Robert Hellsten died in 1863. There was a small estate which brother Manne was the executor. Eric’s share has been held in Uppsala and managed by Manne. BUT, the funds are not as large as Eric expected because there was a debt: brother Calle had borrowed 700 Kr from their dear departed mother and never repaid her and now that debt is shared equally among the other 12 siblings.

Manne has forwarded the travel funds to their sister Lovis in Örebro who lives near Calle and Johanna and Lovis will give the money to Hannah (Johanna) when she is ready to travel. He did not forward the funds directly to his bankrupt brother.

Eric’s sister Otillia writes him on 29 October 1867:Hanna who has the courage to travel to America[,] yes god[,] let her happily and well arrive there

This letter from Manne was written to Eric at the end of October 1867.
So, did Johanna immediately leave for the USA in the fall of 1867?

Her father’s letters do mention various cousins: Owen Mooney, Peter Garvey, Ellen Mooney and Francis Hearty. There is also a sister Elizabeth (Betty) mentioned. But no mother.

The above is what is known from information on "this side of the pond." What can be found in the Irish records about Mary's family? Some the following, I determined before my trip and confirmed when in Belfast.

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We have Owen Hearty in the Tithe Applotment list, in 1828 in Dorsey. Owen is no. 91 and has 4 Acres, 2 Roods, 12 Perches and a half yearly Rectorial Tithe of 3s. 8 1/2 d., he is listed along with Arhur Heatey and Patt Heatey in Dorsey.

The tithe applotment is a list of farmers. If he was included in that list, he wouldn’t have been included in the Ordnance Survey taken in 1837 because he didn’t own at least 5 acres [only two properties were listed for Dorsey].

The Griffith’s Valuation was taken in the Dorsey area in 1864. There are 5 Hearty families listed in Dorsey: Bernard Herty Sen, Francis Herty, Mary Herty, Mary Herty and Patrick— but not Owen Hearty. If he were still living and living WITH someone, he would not have been listed because, only the “leasee” was included.

The Cancellation Books update the ownership of the lands listed in the Griffiths. Dorsey Electorial Division, Union of Castleblayney, Parish of Creggan, Barony of Upper Fews, pages 10, 11 includes the handwritten notations of “(Owen)” after the name Patrick Herty. It also includes, the second “Mary” crossed out and “Patrick” written above and “(Mary)” right after that. The crossed out names mean that land was next leased to the person whose name was written above it. The name in ‘(,)” is an unexplained notation.

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I went thru the rent leases from the landlord, Walter MacGeough Bond in the family Estate stored at PRONI — there were two Hearty leases:

[D301/2/211]

(1) Terence Hearty (Acreage: 8.3.10), 1 Nov. 1800

• in the part of Dorsey called Tulinlavin, yearly rent 8.8.2

• length of lease: 3 lives, including himself, his eldest son James, and princess Amelia

(2) John Hearty, Tulllinlavin, 1 Jan 1801,

• written on front: Terence Mackin and Pat Hearty “Mary”

• the map inside includes land bounding the property of Bernard Hearty.

Most of the extensive MacGeough Bond family files were not for Dorsey or didn’t included any leases related to Owen Hearty [I don’t know his parents, so don’t know if these two leases apply to Owen — a father, cousin, uncle, possibly.]

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I went thru the only Catholic Register from that time period in that area that is still in existence:

It is hard to tell if Owen Hearty married 3 times or if this is three different people.

There was no birth record for Mary Hearty in this parish register.

Parts were very hard to read. Maybe this wasn’t the part of Creggan Parish that she was baptized.

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I checked the Workhouse records for County Armagh and did not find Owen Hearty, Mary’s father in them.

I looked for the school records — none survived for Dorsey when Mary Hearty or her sister Betty Hearty would have attended. The Dorsey description page in the Ordnance Survey said that Dorsey had a National School (1837) which the sisters could have attended.

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The Hearty family/clan has been in the townland Dorsey for many years.

According to the Dorsey page on the Creggan Historical Society’s site, Turlagh O’Heartye was in the 1664 Hearth Money Rolls valuation, and James Herety & Owen Herety were in the 1766 Census of Creggan. So the Hearty family [O’Hearty clan] has been there for hundreds of years. Mary and her father Owen Hearty were most likely descendants of Turlagh, James and Owen, but I could not find any connection between the generations.

My great great grandmother Mary Hearty Helsten was the daughter of a poor tenant farmer, Owen Hearty. We do not know who was her mother or grandparents. We do know she had Garvey and Mooney cousins. Possibly she had Garvey and Mooney grand or great grandparents along with Hearty grandparents. But that is unknown at this point. Unfortunately, as a poor tenant farmer, there is a lack of records. They were not part of of a wealthy family like the MacGeough Bonds who were the land owners of the small plot Owen farmed and lived on. That family is well-documented with thousands of pages of family and business records archived at the Public Records Office in Belfast (PRONI).

The few records that do exist for all the folks living and working the land are actually ways to document in order to “tax.” The Hearth Money Rolls (1664) were to tax folks based on how many hearths they had — taxing for warmth and cooking ability in your cottage!! The Tithe Applotment Rolls (1828) was valuing the piece of land for collecting tithes for the official church, whether you were a member or not! I guess as much as my ancestors probably felt unfairly taxed, hundreds of years later, I can be thankful that the officials kept good records!

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After a week of searching in the Public Records Office (PRONI) in Belfast, Northern Ireland, my elusive HEARTY and RICHARDSON ancestors remain elusive. If you think I don’t know much about the pedigree of my HEARTY family — I know even less about my RICHARDSON pedigree in Ireland!

I have found her father Owen Hearty, in the 1828 Tithe Applotment in Dorsey as a small tenant farmer with 4 acres, 2 roods and 12 perches (a bit less than 5 acres)-- not exactly a large farm to support a family in good times, let alone the bad ones. The letters mention a sister, Betty, and some cousins (Peter Garvey in Youngstown OH, Ellen Mooney in Syracuse NY, Larggh Hearty in Philadelphia PA, and Frances Hearty in USA) but no mother. I do not have a name for her mother.

Letter from Owen Hearty in Dorsey, to his daughter
Mary Hearty in Haviland Hollow, NY, 11 July 1949.

Haviland Hollow Putnam

County State of New York

Care of Benjamin Cowl

for Mary Hearty”

Mr Owen Hearty

Dorsey and Cragon

Newtown Hamletown

Aragon Parish

Ireland”

“Dorsey July 11th 1849

My Dear daughter I am glad to Hear

That you are in good health and so are

we all in at present I am going to lot you

Know that Bety sent a leter and send as

much money as will Bringe Barney and Bety

Over to you and the time is so Bad that I cant

send none and the will give it to you when

the will get it and this Country is going to the

Bad your father is not staut and if you can get

money send it Home No more at present

But remain your Father Owen Hearty

of Dorsey

Mary Hearty married Eric Adolf Helsten on 12 August 1849, shortly after the first letter was sent from Ireland. She has probably been working as a maid for Benjamin Cowl in Haviland Hollow and Eric has probably been working in Cowl's tannery in Haviland Hollow. Times as tough back home, the potato crop has failed, please send money to help her sister Betty come to USA.

Mary received one more letter from her father, Owen, dated 24 January 1851. This is much longer, has some news from people back home who have come to the USA, still appealing for money.

Mr E. A. Helsten

Heviland Hollow P.Off

State New York America

postmark: Castleblayney JA23 1851

Dorsey January 24th 1851

Dear Mary

I received your Letter

which gives me to understand that

you are in Good as we enjoy at Present

thank God = I also must inform you

we felt very uneasy on account of you

not writing Sooner as it is all the Conso-

Lation the devised Children of erin has

a communication by Letter therefore

I consider it a duty incumbent on

you at Least to write 2 a year at ther

Least I was also very much rejoiced

to hear of your success and how luck

you and your Husband is doing ---

in that country as for this country it

is totally Gone to the Bad the Potatoes

is altogether failed & Markets are very

Low in Consequences of the Ports being

all opened

therefore on account of the Stater of

the Country thus is condition of Money

at all your sister Betty is inclined

for to go to that County only she is

embarrysed By the State of the time

and cannot find means to go therefore

I Would feel Greatly oblidged to you &

your Husband if you would send money

some assistance that would enable her to

Go & as Soon as she would earn it She would

See you Paid -- & in regard to sending money

there is no danger whatever as there can

Be a Post office order got in every Post

office that there is not the Least danger

in sending such = Do you need not Be the

Least timerous in sending it a she will

Surely Renumerate you for it = in regard

to Ellen Mooney her address is E..Mooney

Syracuse State Newyork =

So Larggh Hearty is in Philadelphia

I do not Know her address

I must also inform you that your

cousin Francis Hearty is also gone

to that country & is your cousins

Owen Rooney & Peter Garvey is gone to

that country Peter is in college in

Youngstown State of Penna. & owen Rooney

is a clark in Syracuse State new-

york they are all doing well ---

your friends are all in good health

& also your neighbors

be all elevated to Learn you had

the good fortune to get such a Husband

as I can Judge that he is an industrious

man & also a good tradesman ---

therefore Let you Put your Confidence

in the almighty as he is our only guide

& Protector & May the Lord Bless You

is the Sincere Prayer of your affectionate

father ---- Owen hearty ---

He has news, but also is appealing 2 letters/year from her and for funds for Betty to come. He clearly has gotten a letter from Mary telling her father of her marriage to Eric. Clearly, Owen has hope that his daughter will be able to send funds, but life in the USA was not all "milk and honey" as imagined and she didn't have the money to send home at that time, according to the draft of the next letter.

We have no further letters from Owen Hearty to his daughter Mary Hearty Helsten. The last piece of tangible information about Owen Hearty is that letter in 1851 to his daughter. He is not listed as living in Dorsey in the Griffith's Valuation of 1864. There is an Owen Hearty in the next town over -- whether it is the same person is to be determined. In the Griffith's Valuation in Dorsey there is a Patrick Hearty and in the Cancelation Books in PRONI written in "()" is the word "Owen" --

Patrick Hearty (Owen).

Not sure what that actually means. Maybe Patrick was the tenant and Owen lived with him (just a guess).

We do have the notes for a draft of a letter, probably to Betty, Mary's sister, written by Eric some time after they have bought the tannery in Gaylordsville in July 1852. Eric is no longer an employee, but now an indebted employer.

Dear Sister Elizabeth! We have received

your letter which gives us the satisfaction that you

are in good health and have a good place where

you be also gave us to understand thatt you are

fully determined to go to America but have not the

strength on own expense to do so. We think that if you

only was here you could do well butt how come i do nott know.

My situation is greatill different these year to whatt is was

last year. Last year i did hire out and earnd money every day

and had money out on interest, but last spring

I took it all up and hired a tanyeard, about seven

milles from where i lived thern, and began on own hand

to work, laid out all the money had in hides skins and bark for so

stach my yeard and there is did not have enough i had to

borrow more money all i could get for i found out i had to lay out money

every day. Tanning is a very slow buiseyness and it take

a great while before the money comes balk again. I feel

sorrow to say thatt i could not give you any money for

your assistance but i ask you to not blame us for my situation

are so that i could not and my bussiness require money

allwhile and i have nothing more then what i have

worked very hard for since i com to America and it seems

to me as i could make more money when i worked as

Journeyman than i can now and beside that i have to now more

risk of loses among those Yankys now than before. I ask you now

to be of a contented mind and save all you can if may perhaps be som oppening

for you in the future. If you could come we would be very

glade to see you here and do what we can for you

then. You know that your sister had to work for all that

brought her here before she started and so did i too. i had

to work for years befor i could get enough together to bring me

YoJ received Fathers letter great while ago and also yours but you

must excuse me for we had not wrought Sooner my time has been

taken up very much all while and my wife could not write

it because she never leand it

This letter was not signed and not sent since it was with Eric and Mary's papers in the desk -- maybe copied and mailed to Mary's sister Betty.

Eric does offer to help her if she can get herself to Connecticut. He cannot afford to pay her passage. Over the years Eric and Mary did help various nieces of his from Sweden when they came, many lived with them and got jobs in the neighborhood until out on their own. Eric also hired new Swedish immigrants in the family business -- as apprentices when it was a tannery, and as assistants as the business evolved over the years.

In my effort to find any more information on the Hearty family of Dorsey, part of Creggan Parish, I corresponded with Kiernan McConville at the Creggan Historical Society. I shared the above letters with him. He was thrilled to see some letters from the Famine Years written by ordinary people from South Armagh, which he commented were very rare. He asked to include them in an upcoming journal of their local historical society.

In the article, Kieran starts by putting the letters into context. He describes the famine conditions, the cause and spread, and the ineffective efforts to relieve the famine. He goes on to describe the migrations and death rate that devastated the Irish population. He gives what background we know about the Hearty family and on Mary's family. He mentions the hopes of sending a child abroad brought but in many times remained unfulfilled. He ends with the transcription of the three letters.

I can only hope that maybe the descendants of Mary's family back in Ireland, survived and will see this article and/or blog and contact me. If not, if the letters & article provide information for others whose ancestors came from Creggan Parish, then that is good also.

Thursday, August 8, 2013

Mary lived to be 92. In her old age, her family became concerned about her living alone on the family farm. They insisted that she move in with her daughter-in-law. Each day, Mary would get up, hitch up the horse and wagon, ride up to her home, spend the day and then return at night to sleep at her daughter-in-law's home. When she died, Marion Dakin, her niece, helped to clean out the house. Marion found all of the "new fangled" gifts--a toaster, an iron, etc.-- she had given her over the years still in their original boxes.

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Mary Louise Helsten was the oldest child of Eric Adolf Helsten and his wife Mary Hearty. Mary L was born in Patterson New York on 7 June 1850, and the next year her family moved to Gaylordsville Connecticut where she grew up. In 1878, shortly before turning twenty-eight, she married a widower, Charles Pomeroy, who had a teenage son Henry. Henry was the child of Charles Pomeroy and Josephine Hallock Pomeroy

No one in the family told any stories (that I recall) of Aunt Mary Pomeroy as a step-mother, or wife -- just as an elderly woman who lived thirty-nine years after her husband died in 1903. She was fifty-three years old when her husband died. So what was she doing for thirty-nine years? She never remarried. How did she support herself?

A little bit of searching in the US Census:

• 1850 can't find Charles Pomeroy

• 1860 Charles Pomeroy (age 26) and Gertrude Pomeroy (16) are living with Ithamar (63) and Louisa (60) Ferris in New Milford, Conn.

• 1870 Charles Pomeroy (35) and his wife Josephine Pomeroy (24) are living in Litchfield, Conn on her parents' farm, Homer (60) and Caroline (55) Hallock. Charles is working as a farm laborer.

• 1900 Charles Pomeroy (65) and Mary L (49) are living in New Milford, Litchfield, Conn. and he is a farmer.

• 1910 Mary Pomeroy (59), widow is living in New Milford, has a hired hand (under relationship), who is listed as a "farmer," not "farm hand" (under occupation) ... THE REST OF THE STORY...

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I was looking at Miriam J Robbins site to search for city directories. She had some links for New Milford, Connecticut and I was working my way through the directories checking out various family names. I started noticing the ads. This half-page ad was run in the directories for 1884-5, 1888-9, 1891, 1897:

Looks like Charles Pomeroy was not only farming. If you take a look at his farm. Sure looks like it is also a lumber yard on the right:

Not only does it look like both a farm and a lumberyard, but look between the buildings, set back, there is the house that Mary lived in with her husband Charles and, in her later years, would drive her horse and wagon to daily to spend her days in her latter years.

Charles Pomeroy died in 1903, and by 1902, he no longer had his large ad. He was listed, instead, in small listings under the individual items sold, such as "FERTILIZERS"

Now for the rest of the story. What was Mary doing after her husband died?

Here is the listing for the various Pomeroy family members in 1914 in New Milford

Written out without abbreviations:
Pomerory Mary, widow of Charles, hardware and lumber [business] in Merwinsville near Gaylordsville, home ditto [she lived where she worked, a "home-based business" in today's lingo].

Looks like Mary was busy. According to the small ads in that 1914 directory, she had listings under:
Hardware and Cutlery, Lumber, and Mason Materials. Even if, in the address book section, she is "Mary, widow of Charles;" when listing 'Mary the businesswoman,' she was "Mrs. Charles Pomeroy" in the directory:

In 1914, she is sixty-four years old and clearly working at the family business that her husband started and ran in addition to the farm.

The next online directory I found for New Milford, was 1927. Here she is listed as "Mary E wid Charles h Gaylordsville" and her grandson Charles, son of Henry is running the business.

In the 1930 census she and her daughter-in-law, Caroline Pomeroy (63), are living together in New Milford, they are each widows, she is the head of household at age 79. In 1940, she is still the head of household, now at age 89 she has her step-daughter-in-law Edna C Pomeroy (74) living with her in her own home, as she was in 1935. She completed two years of high school according to the census.

In the 1930 census, the property listed right before Mary Pomeroy has Charles C Pomeroy, and it is listed as farm and lumber! So, sometime before 1930, her grandson has taken over the family business.

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

For years I've been looking for Mary Hearty who I knew was born in "Parish of Creggan, County Armagh the town land Dorsy," Ireland (if the handwritten note on the back of her 1849 marriage certificate is to be believed). But how she got to Haviland Hollow where she lived and married Eric Helsten on 12 August 1849 (if the front of the minister's marriage certificate is to be believed), has been one of those "little mysteries" in life.

I had begun to wonder if an alien space ship had dropped her off in Haviland Hollow, New York because I could never find her on any passenger lists.

Then today I looked yet again, and I found on ancestry.com, a "Mary Hart" age 25 indexed as arriving on 17 June 1848 in New York. Since Mary had told the 1900 US Census that she arrived 52 years earlier, an arrival year of 1848 sure sounded right.

Here is the actual document:

and looking closely at passenger number 70:

It sure looks like Mary Hearty (not "Hart" as indexed) age 26, 3 months (not age "25" as indexed) from Ireland planning to stay in US.

This information is from the Famine Irish Entry Project, 1846-1851. Washington D.C., NARA.

The link to this page: http://genea-adventures.blogspot.com/2012/12/one-of-my-irish-ancestors-wasnt-dropped.html

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

I have been writing about Eric HELSTEN and his apprentice John CARLSON along with sharing his letter from his mother yesterday. I found Chris in her search for Eric and John when she posted this picture of Eric & Mary's tombstone in Gaylordsville Connecticut.
All of his family letters have the theme: "I want to see you."

He arrived as an immigrant in the United States on 16 December 1845 from Gavle, Sweden on the Neptunis. There was discussion in some letters of his upcoming trip in 1858. I've not found any evidence yet of his having made that trip. I have evidence of his visiting his family in July 1877 (sailing from Göteborg to NYC on 27 July 1877 and a family portrait taken with all 13 siblings together) and again in 1886 when he was honored at a ceremony as a past winner of a special swimming award.
On 26 August 1835, Eric won a laurel wreath in swimming at age 13. There was a booklet published about the swimming society UPSALA Simmsällskaps Matrikel. (1796-1859) that lists the various winners and describes the background of the organization. On 22 August 1886, there was some kind of special anniversary celebration of this race, Eric is listed on the program as Factory segaren E A Hellsten and I have the certificate he was given at the ceremony.

I do not have a lot of information on his wife Mary HEARTY. I do have a letter from her father which I will post some day. I don't know when she arrived. She was born in Dorsey, Parish Creggan, County Armagh, Ireland. She married Eric on 12 August 1849 in Patterson NY.

How she got to the US, I don't know. I've not found her in any published records for the US passenger arrival lists in the 1840's. Maybe she came through Canada and down the Hudson. I understand a number of companies recruited people in Ireland to settle in Canada to fill the boats going to Canada (the boats came back filled with lumber). If there are any immigration records coming into Canada or boat records, I've not found them. I'll take suggestions on other theories as to how she might have arrived here.

I also have no idea how she supported herself once she arrived before she married Eric. I have no idea if she came with anyone she knew or set out on her own. I've never found an official document about her other than her death certificate. The only reason I know where and when she as born is because it was hand-written on the back of her marriage certificate given them by the pastor, Abram Davis.

Friday, August 19, 2011

Last February, I was checking to see if anything new could be found on my GGgrandparents Eric HELSTEN or his wife Mary HEARTY. Eric came from Uppsala, Sweden in 1845. Mary came from Dorsey, Parish Creggan, County Armagh, Ireland around the same time. They were married in Patterson, NY 12 August 1849 and moved over the New York/Connecticut line to Gaylordsville, CT. In 1842, Eric was apprenticed as a tanner in Sweden and so it was not surprising to discover that when he settled in Gaylordsville that he started a tannery in 1853.

I discovered someone else was searching for Eric and Mary. I was pleased. I am descended from their daughter Caroline Matilda HELSTEN who married Charles H EVANS. I don't know what happended to two of their four children, Mary Louisa HELSTEN and William HELSTEN. Maybe one of their descendants was searching.

Eric HELSTEN

So I sent a message asking how she was related to Eric and Mary.

However, it was someone NOT descended from Eric and Mary. It was Chris Finland who was searching her ancestor John CARLSON [Carl Johan Augustus CARLSSON]. John was an orphan who came from Sweden after his grandparents, who had been raising him, died. John was apprenticed to Eric HELSTEN. Chis has a paper saying that John got a new suit of clothes and $100 for his 7 years of apprenticeship as a tanner and shoemaker. Chris didn't know anything about John's early years but figured that maybe Eric was a distant relative or family friend who had taken him in -- how else might he have gotten here from Sweden?

John's mother was from just south of Uppsala and Eric came from Uppsala. Chris has been searching for years. She has found relatives in Sweden, traveled there, and had been working on a family tree for Eric HELSTEN in hopes of finding a connection, anywhere. No success.

This has led to our working together to see if we can find anything about John CARLSON and to figure out his relationship to Eric HELSTEN.

About Erica

Welcome to my blog on my adventures as I try to figure out my family's history. Over the years I've had some amazing adventures and met some wonderful people along the way. I keep looking for the stories behind the people (along with those names and dates) and I keep trying to find those women who weren't well documented in the past. I hope you'll enjoy what I post and if you want to contact me, send a note voolich@gmail.com.